Rony Lopes, Renato Sanches and Gonçalo Guedes: former Benfica players in the most valuable U-21

The Football Observatory has revealed the updated list of the 50 most valuable U-21 player and on that list are three player who were nurtured at Benfica.

Rony Lopes (Monaco), Renato Sanches (Swansea) and Gonçalo Guedes (Valencia) are the only Portuguese players who are present and they all have graduated from Caixa Futebol Campus.

At the age of 21, Rony Lopes has been one of the most used players by Leonardo Jardim (21 matches/3 goals) which has earned him his debut in the Portugal national team against the United States. He arrived at Benfica as a U-13 player and remained at the club until he was a U-19 player. He transferred to Manchester City and then to France. The attacking midfielder is in the 32^ndplace in the list, evaluated at 33,9 million euros (on September 1 he was worth less than 10 million).

Inside the top 30 is Renato Sanches (29^th place). The Swansea player, loaned by Bayern Munich, sees his name among the best player under 21 years. The Football Observatory has assigned the value of 37,6 million euros to the midfielder who arrived at Benfica in 2007/08 and went through all the academy teams – including the B team – until he reached the first team and the National Team that won the European Championship in France.

Gonçalo Guedes, loaned by PSG to Valencia, is in the 23^rdposition with a value of 40,9 million euros (he was evaluated at 24 million on September 1). Just like Renato Sanches, the attacker who turned 21 a few days ago, made all his youth training at Benfica, starting at Pupilos do Exército until the first team. He was a U-15, U-17 and U-19 National Champion –, played for the B team and celebrated seven titles with the first team, including a third league title in a row.

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